Trade Marks and Service Marks
Under the Madrid Protocol, owners of
marks registered with the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office can register and protect
their mark in 60 countries
International Registration
Copyrights run for the life of the creator
plus 70 years.
Duration of Copyright
Patent owners must mark patented
items in order to recover damages from
infringement
Notice
Any formula, device, or compilation of
information used in one’s business that
provides an advantage over competitors
who do not have that information
Trade Secrets
Written programs have the same protection
as any other copyrighted material
Copyright Protection of Computer
Programs
Plaintiff must provide that it has a valid
mark, used the mark first, and that
another’s use of it will confuse consumers
Proving Trademark Infringement
Not mandatory but recommended to
prevent a claim of innocent infringement
Copyright Notice
Four categories: processes, machines,
manufactures, and compositions of matter
– To receive a patent, the invention must be
new and not obvious.
Patentability
When secret business information is made
public, it loses the protection it had while
secret
Loss of Protection
Patents have been granted for computer
programs.
Patent Protection of Programs
Involves a product’s total
image and overall packaging
Trade Dress Protection
Work must be original, independently
created by the author, and possess some
degree of creativity
What is Copyrightable?
A pure business-method patent consists of
a series of steps related to performing a
business process
Patentable Business Methods
Limited disclosure, non-disclosure
agreements, exit interviews and industrial
security plans
Defensive Measures
Trade secret law extends to computer
programs
Trade Secrets
The Federal Trademark Dilution Act
provides a cause of action against the
commercial use of another’s mark when it
results in dilution of its distinctiveness
Prevention of Dilution of Famous Marks
When a business hires a freelancer to
create a copyrightable work, the “work for
hire” is owned by the business
Copyright Ownership and the Internet
Patent owner has exclusive right to the
invention and may bring an infringement suit
for monetary damages, injunctive relief and
maybe attorney fees
Infringement
Fines up to $500,000 or twice the value of
the proprietary information; up to 15 years in
prison
Criminal Sanctions
This type of intellectual property protection applies to the layout design of semiconductor chips.
Mask Works
Set up identical or
confusingly similar domain to existing
trademarks
Cybersquatters
• Reproduce the work
• Prepare derivatives from the original work
• Distribute copies of recordings of the work
• Publicly perform the work
• Publicly display the work
Copyright holders have exclusive right to
Granted for a new process,
machine, manufacture, composition or
improvement for 20 years
Utility Patent
Corporations fined up to $10 million or twice
the value of the secret
– Offender’s property is subject to forfeiture
Criminal Sanctions
This law protects original computer programs from unauthorized copying and distribution
Copyright Law